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Tube virgin looking for tube amp under $3k

I’ve never owned any tube amps or preamps and since I’ve got 95dB efficient speakers I thought why the heck not? And wow! What a rabbit hole I’ve gone down In the last week or so and my head is really spinning. For just about every amp or amp/preamp combo there’s someone who loves it and someone who says don’t bother. And then the more I dig, the more brands I find.

I’ve read about these products recently:

— Erhard Audio integrated amp 
—The various iterations of the ST-70 (Van Alstein, Bob Latino, Will Vincent, etc.)
—Music Reference RM10
—Cary (out of budget except used)
—Raven (at max budget for integrated)
—Dennis Had (hard to buy/find)
—Quicksilver Mid mono (need preamp)
—Decware (too long a wait for me at the moment but maybe one day)
—Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III (at max budget and do I really need 100WPC with my speakers in a small room?)

And probably a few others I’ve forgotten about already. 

I have to say that the Bob Latino ST-70 speaks to me for the price of entry (about $1400) and the fact that I could get away without a preamp and only use a passive input selector. That said, would an ST-70 be the best choice or only the cheapest? 

Any ideas for a tube newb who doesn’t have a stockpile of tubes to roll in and out of an amp?




larshepping

Showing 1 response by davehg

davehg
85 posts
 
The best tube amp under $3k I’ve owned is the VAC Avatar SE. Let’s you switch triode and ultra linear. Beautifully made and I think it had a remote. One of a few pieces I regretted selling.

You might try a Leben CS300 series. It’s lower on power though, and the CS600 series would do better but they are in the $4k range.

I use a Woo Audio WA5 which is a 300b amp, and powers efficient speakers and inefficient headphones with ease. You can find them in the mid $3k range on sites like Head-Fi, and it was favorably reviewed in Stereophile, as was the Leben 600.

all prices above reflect used gear, and all above are integrated amps.
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